High School Scrapbook: Shayne Culpepper

On being selected as an alternate

Monday, January 1, 2001, 12:00 am

One of the toughest positions in running is to be an alternate, someone who might get to run in a meet only if a teammate ahead of you gets sick or injured. Shayne Culpepper has experienced that at the highest level, finishing fourth in the Olympic Trials 1500 and not getting the nod to compete in Sydney until a few weeks before the Games when Regina Jacobs withdrew due to illness.

"I think I wasted a lot of mental energy trying to analyze what might happen," she says. "The best advice is to maintain your fitness and not try to think about your race too much. Be ready to race, but realize there’s a chance you may not get to."

When you get to the meet, enjoy the atmosphere and try to learn from it, whether you run or not. And if you don’t compete, use it positively. "My freshman year at University of Colorado I was the eighth runner in cross country and didn’t get to run," says Culpepper. "I used that as inspiration and made the decision that it wasn’t going to happen again."